The word came as I was sitting at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport preparing for my flight to New Orleans and VenueConnect that Turner Madden had passed away just two days earlier.

The message came via text and for the longest all I could do was blankly stare at the words on my phone that I wished were not real. Finally, a couple of delayed blinks later, I realized what I was reading was true and that one of our industry’s most recognized personalities in Turner Madden had, indeed, somehow left us.